Indoor track season has arrived in full swing across the country with many Indiana athletes getting early marks outside state borders. Ten have claimed their positioning in the top 50 nationally for meets that have taken place so far.
Boys
One of the most recent improvements to the leaderboard was with Jaidyn Johnson's recent race in the 60m dash at the Morolake Akinosun Elite Invite where he would run a 6.79 in the prelims before moving up the charts to a 6.76 in the finals which is good for US #4 behind a trio of runners all with marks of 6.73.The same day Dominic Calhoun would also run up in Chicago in the 200m where he would claim the top performance in the state so far with an overall runner-up performance of 21.79. This time ranks him 19th in the country with the lead mark currently at 21.15. The Ohio State commit would also run a season best time of 6.95 in the 60m prelims before placing 6th in the finals on Sunday.
The ATA Ignite team would also run to an easy victory running a 1:30.59 in the 4x200m which is tied for the 37th fastest time nationally. The team consisted of Dominic Calhoun, DeAndre Cooper, Noah Wellington, and Evan Williams.
Earlier this month Mason Schmitz also showed that he has big goals for his freshman season after he ran to an impressive 400m/800m double at the KYA Indoor Classic in Nashville. His time of 1:54.10 is the fastest recorded indoor time by a freshman and currently puts him fourth in the nation. His time of 49.49 from the same day also ranks him nationally with a ranking of 45th after this weekend's action. The leaders currently sit at 1:52.47 and 47.17 for each respective event.
Last month Jordan Randall would clear 6' 6" to win in Defiance, Ohio as mentioned in our December update. His mark from early December still has him ranked nationally as his mark is currently tied for 20th. The national leading jump at this point has the bar raised to 7' 0.25".
Girls
Lyric Steele claimed a season best time of 7.58 where she would win in the finals at the KYA Indoor Classic in Nashville. Her time was just off of her best mark from last year by one hundredth of a second and currently ranks 28th in the country. The current national leader currently has clocked a 7.22.
The IU Bloomington commit also competed at the MLK Weekend Invite this past weekend where she would finish with a runner-up performance.
At the same meet Libby Dowty would open up her season after competing at Foot Locker Nationals and Nike Cross Nationals this past December. She would break away from the field to a sub 5 minute performance for the full mile with a 4:59.29 which converts to a 4:57.55. This conversion puts her 21st on the national list for the 1600m.
She is not the only Indiana girl ranked in the top 50 in the 1600m nationally as the duo of Mallory Weller and Lexi Panning are ranked from their performances last month at the Midwest High Performance Series #1 at Indiana Tech. Mallory would win the race with a sub 5 minute race with a current US #26 time of 4:58.51 with Lexi just narrowly missing out on sub 5 with a 5:00.08 which is US #33.